Parental Relocation with children after a Texas Divorce

Posted on Jun 17, 2018 6:00am PDT

Suppose that you have gone through a divorce from your spouse and you are attempting to adjust to life as a single adult raising a child in different households. You may need to find a new place to live and do so on a budget with one income instead of two.

This is challenging because not only will you have less money to live on than during your marriage, there is likely an order from the judge in place that restricts where you can move in the event that your children live with you primarily.

Moving after a divorce comes with a catch

The issue with moving after you have secured a divorce from your spouse is that no matter what the reason is you will likely need to work something out with your ex-spouse prior to doing so. Suppose, for example, you have the opportunity to take a new job within your company in the months after your divorce. The catch is that your new job (that pays almost twice as much as your old job) is located across the state in another city.

If your children reside primarily with you what can you do to remain in line with your Final Decree of Divorce’s orders on living within a certain geographic distance from your spouse?

Your divorce court made decisions in your case based on what is in the best interest of your child. This means that above all else (including considerations related to a new job and more pay) your children would come first and what was in their best interests would be considered to be the most important factor when rendering orders related to your divorce.

Part of operating in the best interest of your children is to ensure that your children have an opportunity to have continuous and lasting contact with both you and your ex-spouse in a safe and stable environment. Ultimately the decision as to whether or not to allow you to relocate with your children is dependent upon the facts and circumstances of your specific case.

Modifying your divorce decree in order to allow for a relocation

If you file for a modification of your divorce decree in order to put yourself in a position where you can move to the city where your new job would be then you can expect to find out one way or another whether or not you will be able to move.

What I tell clients in this position is that unlike a lot of family law questions, there really is no middle ground in a situation like this. Your goal is to be able to move to take the new job. You will either achieve that goal or fail at achieving that goal. There is no compromise position.

Since you cannot expect to compromise with your ex-spouse, assuming that he or she is against the move, you may seek to have a study done of your family in order to have a judge understand the particular circumstances at play.

As we touched on earlier, the decision will wholly be about your children and how they would be able to adjust to a potential move and their inability to be able to see their other parent as much. A psychological study could be done of the children to understand if it would be even conceivable for a move to occur.

In the event that you are able to win your modification case and you are allowed to move with your children it is foreseeable that you will need to pay a portion (if not all) of your ex-spouse’s transportation costs associated with their now having to travel a much greater distance to spend time with your children.

The flip side of having to pay transportation costs would be that you may lose out of child support that you had previously been able to receive. Either way, the costs of raising your children will now have to be evened out somewhere given that you have added in a factor to the situation that will make life more difficult for all parties involved.

Preparing your case if you are the non-moving parent

Suppose that you are the parent who will not be moving and instead is facing the prospect of having your ex-spouse move a great distance away with your children. What can you do to prepare yourself and your case to best ensure that this does not happen?

Obviously, you would want to think it through and see just how much your visitation rights and time with your children will be affected by the move. If your ex-spouse wants to move across the country with the children you would likely lose multiple weekends of visitation per month as well as your weeknight together with your children. Making this determination will allow you to make this point obvious to a court.

What do your children stand to gain from this move- other than having one parent who earns more money? Will your ex-spouse be moving closer to their extended family thus giving your children more of an opportunity to be with family they had previously not known well? What about your family? Will they lose any ability to build relationships with your children due to the move?

These are the sort of elements you should consider when dealing with this type of situation. Obviously, the burden is on your ex-spouse to present a case as to why a move should be allowed. This will be difficult to do considering the policies of our state but you should not take this for granted. Begin to think about the circumstances of your case so that you can prepare your attorney with this knowledge from early on.

Questions about relocation after a divorce with children? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan

To learn more about post-divorce life please do not hesitate to contact our office today. A free of charge consultation is available six days a week with one of our licensed family law attorneys.

Law Office of Bryan Fagan | Houston, Texas Divorce Lawyers

The Law Office of Bryan Fagan routinely handles matters that affect children and families. If you have questions regarding divorce, it's important to speak with one of our Houston, TX Divorce Lawyers right away to protect your rights.

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